She was silent for a long time and I was beginning to think she was miffed when she suddenly got up and went to the door. Your parents travelling with you, are they? I thought back to Da and his woman and how he never even mentioned Mam anymore. And if it had not been for the habits of so many years, the iron discipline I’d had to teach myself, I’d have screamed. I don’t have the words to explain how good it felt but I don’t think I can ever forget it, even if I tried. “Now, I am aware that you don’t use your real name anymore, Countess. I am, we are, Carmilla. About my age, eighteen, nineteen? I asked her what made her dump him so fast and she said he didn’t like her singing. How will you ever love me after that? Hasn’t she heard of WhatsApp? I just remember her collapsing on the living room floor in front of the telly. Let me see you naked.”
Piece by piece, I slide off your clothes, you making no attempt to resist. When my mouth finds the crease of your armpit, you buck against me as my tongue tickles you, and your fingers clutch at me with more strength than I knew you had.
